


Otter, a hedgehog and a puppy

by heatherforrest



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes and related fandoms
Genre: Dogs, Fluff, M/M, Started with plot and dissolved into fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-06
Updated: 2015-02-06
Packaged: 2018-03-10 20:38:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3302705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heatherforrest/pseuds/heatherforrest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the lovely angstective on Tumblr! I'm sorry this started out as plot and dissolved into fluff!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Otter, a hedgehog and a puppy

John had started keeping track of dates. It was probably the outcome of planning his and Sherlock’s wedding, but he nonetheless remembered dates.

It had been four weeks since they got married. Sherlock became Sherlock Watson-Holmes and John became John Holmes-Watson. It had been two weeks since their honeymoon. That had been fun and amazing. It had a week since they’d gotten a case from Lestrade and Sherlock was beginning to get crabby. 

“Bored.” 

“Oh, god, no, not this again.” 

“Bored.” 

“No, go to Tesco and get food or something. We’re out of milk again.” 

“John, I’m bored.” 

John sighed and put the newspaper down, ring clicking on the metal table. “I told you. Go to Tesco and get milk if you’re that bored.” 

Sherlock, of course, didn’t go to Tesco. John had to go himself before they sat down in the evening to watch telly. Sherlock was upset about that, but John reminded him that he was the one who had been whining about being bored and maybe if you had gone and got milk yourself I could be there instead of going to Tesco. 

It continued until it was Thursday and John suggested going for a drive. “We could go down to the cottage in Sussex, you liked that, didn’t you? There were bees there.” 

When Sherlock begrudgingly okayed the idea, John turned his head so his husband wouldn’t see the grin on his face. They packed up what they needed, John making sure to bring towels and cleaning supplies incase the new member of the Watson-Holmes family had an accident. John had been planning this for six weeks, getting Sherlock a dog. He’d made calls to various breeders in the area after talking to Mycroft about Redbeard. Mycroft had told him much about the Irish Setter breed, temperament and whatnot. Sherlock had almost thought something was going on because he’d overheard part of John’s conversation with Mycroft. John had checked with Lestrade to see if he would be okay with a dog most likely visiting the crime scenes with them and been given an “Oh, what the hell,” from him anyways. Lestrade let two people in who weren’t part of the police in, why not a dog? John had talked to Mrs. Hudson. She’d been the easiest to sway. She agreed that Sherlock needed something to do other than be bored and married in between cases. 

Sherlock had been quiet the entire ride, except for joining John in singing “Bohemian Rhapsody”. His eyebrows raised when they turned down a gravel road. “John, have you forgotten the way to the cottage?”

John didn’t reply, letting the detective be puzzled for a little while. John pulled the car into a driveway of a little yellow house. “Come on, you git. Let’s go.” 

Sherlock climbed out of the car and stuck his hands in his pockets while he waited for John to get something out of the trunk of the car. John came next to him with a bag in his hands that he wouldn’t let Sherlock look inside. They walked up to knock on the door. 

Immediately after knocking, dogs barked. It seemed like there were hundreds of them, barking on the other side of the door. A woman’s voice was heard, telling the dogs to shoo so she could open the door. “John Watson?” 

John smiled that warm smile that turned his husband’s heart to jelly. “Yes. You’re Rose Johnson?” 

Sherlock followed John into the house with a small smile on his face. He knew what John was here for. There were two Irish Setters, lanky and gorgeous representations of the breed, one female and one male. 

“So,” John said, pausing. “You’ve figured out why I’ve brought you here.” 

Sherlock wrapped his arms around the shorter man and kissed him on the top of his head. “Let’s go find our dog, shall we?” 

There were six tiny puppies. They weren’t really tiny per se, but they were small, probably about 8 or 9 weeks old. The puppies were in a kiddie pool, one of the bright blue ones you see young children playing in. It was doing a poor job of holding the puppies, but Sherlock looked over that.

“Hey guys.” Sherlock said softly, putting his hand out to the puppies. He and John squatted down next to the pool. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw John smile. John had never expected a high octave out of Sherlock over something young and innocent. 

One of the puppies, a girl, waddled over to his hand and took a sniff. Her tiny nose wrinkled and she sneezed. “That’s the disinfectant. He always smells like that.” John told the puppy. Sherlock laughed, and scooped up the puppy that had sneezed. She immediately wriggled, squirming in a way only puppies could. Sherlock set her down on the floor in between him and John. She waddled next to John and sniffed at him. John stroked her head and sent her back to Sherlock. 

“She’s lovely.” They said in unison, bursting out in laughter. “I think we have a winner, the others don’t really seem to take interest in us.” John told the woman with a laugh. It was true, the other five puppies had stayed on the opposite side of the pool, too busy playing with a toy and each other’s ears to investigate the men. 

John paid the woman while Sherlock cradled the puppy. John handed Sherlock the bag that contained a purple collar and leash. “Thank you so much, love.” Sherlock thanked John, crouching to put the puppy in the grass to he could put her collar and leash on. 

“I was thinking, she needs a name.” John said, holding the dog still so she couldn’t run away. “Do you have any pirate names?” 

Sherlock patted the dog’s head and she rammed his hand away gently with her head. “Perfect. Sadie.” 

“That doesn’t sound like a pirate name. Care to explain?” John told him. 

“Sadie the goat was an American pirate in the 19th Century. She headbutted people the way goats do.” 

Sherlock picked up Sadie and climbed in the car. “I’ll get you a towel or two in case she has an accident, “ John told him and patted Sadie’s head, “And if she does, at least you’re not wearing your regular clothes.” It was true, John had persuaded Sherlock to start wearing what he called normal people clothes more regularly. John handed the towels to Sherlock and got in the car. 

 

“Are we still going to the cottage? Or was that just a ploy to get me out of the house?” Sherlock asked, making sure to keep his voice soft so he wouldn’t wake Sadie. 

“It was a ploy, yeah. I would say we could go, but Sadie is going to have a hard time adjusting anyways and lets not force her to adjust twice.” 

“All these years and you still care about everyone and everything.” 

John smiled at Sherlock. “Of course I do. That is what makes me John.” 

“And what makes me Sherlock is my disdain for most of the humans in the world, save you, Molly, Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson? I do take it that you did in fact ask Mrs. Hudson about me bringing a dog into the flat, correct?”

“She got all teary eyed and told me how sweet that idea was. She said that it would be a perfect gift for my husband. With emphasis on the husband part.” 

As soon as Sadie stepped into the flat, she was at home. She toddled around around, sniffing the floor near the chairs. She barked at the client chair, recognizing a strange smell. Sherlock patted her head and sat down next to her. “That’s the client chair, Sadie. That’s where the clients sit when we decide to take their case or not.” 

“A lot of times, we don’t. You’ll have to get used to people coming and going. And probably gunshots because your dad gets bored.” John threw a faux dark look at Sherlock, who chuckled. “But John, I’m not mean, that will hurt her ears.” 

John sighed, looking at the puppy. “Sadie, you’re already making our lives better. I haven’t been able to get him to stop shooting the wall since I met him.” 

Sadie continued to mesh well with their lives. When they took her down to meet the Yarders, she happily wagged her tail at Lestrade, liking him instantly, sneezing near Donovan but remaining polite. Sadie’s reaction to Anderson was the funniest. When Sherlock had walked her close to Anderson, Sadie had lunged towards Anderson, growling like a savage little puppy. Anderson had skittered out of the way and gotten peed on. John had been the one to walk her on the way back because Sherlock was laughing uncontrollably. 

Mrs. Hudson loved loved and spoiled the little dog. Everytime the door near the stairs was left open, Sadie would bound down the stairs and go into Mrs. Hudson’s flat and beg for treats which Mrs. Hudson kept in a jar near her stove. 

Basically, everyone in John and Sherlock’s lives loved Sadie. But no one loved the dog more than John and Sherlock. Sherlock loved to teach Sadie commands. By the fourth week she was home, she knew the basic commands sit, stay, down and come and at least four additional commands that John could never keep track of. Sherlock loved learning things (evidenced by the 243 types of tobacco ash on his blog) and he loved to give some of that learning to Sadie. John loved to take Sadie for runs. He’d gotten the “running” bug from Sherlock, so Sadie and John would run all the way down from 221b to Regent’s Park and run around the park. Sadie loved the running bit, her feathers would bounce as she loped along with John. 

Sadie’s favorite spot in the house was humorously under the kitchen table. When Sherlock was leaning over his microscope for hours, Sadie would crawl under the table and fall asleep with her head on his feet. Then, after hours of watching, examining, Sherlock would slowly get up, never wanting to disturb the dog but some how managing to do it every time. Sadie would grumble a bit and then go sit near John on her bed next to the fireplace. 

As Sherlock and John watched Sadie play with the ribbons from her gift on Christmas morning near the warm fire, John asked something. “Aren’t you so glad that four months, two weeks and five days ago, we got Sadie?” 

Sadie, hearing her name, dropped the ribbon and trotted over to Sherlock and John. She put her head on the couch, asking for permission to jump up. John scooted over, making room for her in between him and Sherlock. Sherlock patted the couch and Sadie leaped on the couch in between Sherlock and John, placing her head on Sherlock’s leg. John stroked her back, and Sadie glanced at him and twitched her tail in thanks. 

Sherlock patted her head. “Yes, John, four months, two weeks and five days, a dog came into our life. She made it better and made me realize again how much I love you.” 

John and Sherlock leaned across Sadie and kissed each other gently.


End file.
